Goats on a Field Trip

On March 8, I gathered up Starlight and Paprika, bathed them, trimmed their hooves, and loaded them in the truck. They were going on a field trip to Wheeler Elementary school to meet the children. This is the second year I've done this. My dear friend teaches at that school and it was Farm Week.

The children got to hold and pass around a goose egg. The learned about goats, how many chambers are in a goats' stomach, what they eat, where they come from, and why people keep goats. Paprika was a little nervous so I held her on my lap, but this was Starlight's second trip there, so he was friendly.

Learning to Spin

Drop Spindle, Wool Roving, and Yarn (that I made).
The book Respect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont
is the only teacher I have had and though my yarn is
not perfect it is yarn.

Ever since I got Muffy the wool sheep, I was always curious about learning to make wool into yarn. I crochet, so I figure it would be neat to be able to make something from her wool. As stated in previous posts, sheep wool, raw from the animal, can be dirty and gross. It has to go through a lengthy process whereby it is skirted (the very dirty parts cut away from the fleece), washed sometimes with chemicals or hot water and detergent to remove poo and plant parts as well as dirt, carded to part and fluff the fibers, set into roving (long, fat strands to spin by), and then drawn (drafted) thin and spun. After wool is spun into a single strand of string, it is then plied with one or more other strands of string to make yarn. Are you tired yet?

Spinning with a drop spindle (pictured above) is an ancient craft. It requires a simple tool and some fiber. Since I don't know how far I will take this new ability, I am not keen on spending a great deal of money on fancier spinning tools like a spinning wheel or large carding tool. The blue roving pictured above is not from my sheep, but came with the spindle and niddy noddy as a beginner's spinning kit.

There is a learning curve. It took me several trial and error attempts to figure out that I needed to spin from very thinly drafted roving. It is something I do in weird patches of spare time. It's a fairly mindless task that can be stopped in seconds if there is an interruption. In the rare instances that I sit down with my family to watch TV, I'm usually spinning. Since the spindle and roving are small, I sometimes toss them into a canvas tote bag and take them to 4H meetings where I can both listen and spin.

Sugar's Babies

Sugar Sheep gave birth to two sweet little Shetland lambs on February 25, 2013. The ram is orange and has two white socks on his rear legs. Farmer G named him Pumpkin. The little girl is slightly off white like her mother. G named her Marshmallow. Since Shetland's are smaller sheep than let's say, Muffy, the babies are like little delicate dwarves. Both are doing well and keeping up with the sheep herd.

Sugar and Marshmallow

Pumpkin

Sugar, Marshmallow and Pumpkin

Sage

Pepper's baby was born February 25th while I was out there doing chores. A beautiful but very small girl that my husband named Sage. Pepper is my best milker, always a pleasure to milk, gets right up on the stand, and is patient throughout the whole process.

After the scare with Lucas and after seeing how timy this baby was, I was worried she wasn't quite right. The vet had ordered me a bottle of BoSe to keep onhand should any other kids show signs of a selenium deficiency. To me Sage just did not look right. I gave her a BoSe shot later that day. I showed her where Pepper's milkmakers are so she could find the food. Several times.

She seemed tired and weak for a little goat. Usually after they get cleaned off and eat, they're up and moving around. As the days went by, I worried more and began to milk Pepper straight into a bottle to feed Sage. She ate hungrily and perked up after each feeding.

February 28th when I showed up in the morning, Sage had already passed. I buried her by Princess and Gucci. It was very sad. Pepper is still calling for her lost little one and looking at me as if at any moment I will hand her baby back to her.

Lucas' Selenium Deficiency

February 20th my oldest son and I went late to tend the critters and do the chores. I always make a point of doing a head count on the animals to be sure everyone runs up to eat. We did not see Tsica's little buck, Lucas. We got a flashlight and went into the goat pen to find him. He was down inside a dogloo house and was not able to stand on his own. He was cold, wet, shivering and in need of help. As you can see from the above photo of the following morning, it was COLD.

We brought the little guy into my truck, wrapped in my jacket, and turned the heater on to get him warmed up and dry. Even then, he was unable to move his back legs. I suspected either an injury or a selenium deficiency. He was about a month old then and that's when kids tend to start on hay. Sometimes a selenium deficiency becomes aparent at that age when there were no previous signs. My goats do get free choice minerals but the vet explained to me that because that is mixed with salt, sometimes they just don't eat enough of it.

 Here he is the night we found him. It was nasty and snowy out, so I was very thankful I was watching my neighbor's house and pets. When I got out on the road to drive home, the snow was so bad I couldn't see so we ended up staying the night at her house instead.

Her dog thought the goat was interesting and sniffed him. She accompanied him outdoors when he had to go potty too.

Here he is the following day waiting to go to the vet to decide what was wrong. She checked him out and decided it was a selenium deficiency. The following morning he received a BoSe shot. Within a few days he showed huge improvement and was able to return to the herd where his sister and mom were happy to see him again.

Here he is the day before he got to go back to his family. For three days we had to help him nurse from Tsica and since she's a fusspot to be milked, it was not an easy ordeal. Lucas is doing better. His back legs still look a little stiff, but he's nursing on his own and keeping up with his sister as best he can.

Runaway Dog!

This evening I finished placing the last of the railroad ties across the main front section of the fenceline. This meant that I had to saw a tie in half. I used a handy little handsaw that cuts superfast and was assisted by Farmer C. I loaded that tie on my very old worn out dolly and wheeled it to the gate. Farmer C was my gatekeeper, you know, because Max might get out.

I haven't mentioned this before, but Max is a great ranch dog except for one small thing. Once he gets past the main perimeter of the property, he's like a teenager on a joy ride in a racecar. He's a runner. Not only does he run, but when I call him, he stops, looks at me, grins, and runs faster. Not cool, dog. Not cool.

So Farmer C opened the gate for me. I looked both ways to be sure Max wasn't anywhere near us. I started on through the gate and BAM out of nowhere Max shows up.

I told him "Sit" and "Stay". He grinned and shot through the little gap in the gate and you guessed it, he RAN.

First he went to visit Bear, Raj, and the old white dog with many names. They live next door. Then he went to visit some strange dogs behind a fenceline further along. Then horses. Then (and I was following him this whole time telling him to come back) he shot off into uncharted, unfenced territory.

That dog was gone.

Grr.

Farmer C and I told Farmer G that Max had left. We told him to stay put in case he came back and we got in the truck to try to hunt down our dog. We drove past the big wash, through a neighborhood and a road that bordered the back of our neighbor's property. Nothing.

We came back and sighted Max back on our neighbor's property running like a crazy dog. I called him. He stopped, looked at me, smiled, and RAN AWAY. Argh!

My kids went after him.

I lost sight of them. I gathered a leash and some dog cookies then met up with my neighbor who has a cool four wheel drive thing. He was driving his granddaughter around in the thing. We all loaded up in it and he zipped around the property, then on down the road and then he proceeded to take me on a joy ride through the back desert over rocks, hills, across places that had no roads. He told me he sighted Max while I was gone. Max had played with two labradors and then took a swim in another neighbor's pool.

Crazy dog.

We searched all over the desert behind my neighbor's property.

Nothing.

I texted my older son who had the good sense to have his cell phone with him. He said he was at Tanque Verde Stables and Max was there too. So we headed over the hills and through the brush to the stables and found Max with a bailing twine leash being detained by a very nice lady who had simply told him to sit and then tied the rope on him. Oh and my son was there. My oldest.

But when I asked him where my other child was, he says," Oh he was right behind me but he didn't keep up."

So my middle child is out wandering in the desert somewhere. Alone. In an area where everything looks the same. And the sun is getting low in the sky. And we have a 4H meeting soon. And when I call his cell phone it's clear the dang thing isn't even turned on.

Dog and son in tow, we hightailed it back to our property and scanned as we went. No sign of Farmer C. At this point, I'm beginning to freak out. Where is my child? Why didn't he stay with his brother? Why isn't his cell phone working?

Anyways, we make it back and here he comes walking up like nothing's amis. He'd been back twice and was wondering where we were the whole time. *sigh*

And Doc Holliday the mad mean rooster got out at one point during all this. I caught him, trimmed his vile spurs and his claws again and put him back in his pen. Strangely, he didn't try to kill me.

What a weird evening.

Ouch!

Saturday, Karma and Cookie received their Brucellosis shots, ear tags and tattoos. Afterward, Karma did not like the vet at all, and stood far from her. She bawled the whole time Cookie was apart from her, and was happy to be reunited with her little buddy. Both were skittish and suspicious of me that night, but seemed to have forgiven me the next morning.

Cookie is still too small to be checked out in her back end. The vet did look over her woman parts and stated that everything looked like it was developing normally.